With larger watercraft, there is a desire to carry on board smaller craft to provide an alternate form of water transportation; for example, navigation about yacht clubs, exploring beaches, and transport to and from a large yacht anchored offshore. Various devices are available to mount the smaller watercraft on the larger craft; for example winches may be used to haul the craft from the water surface onto the side of the larger craft. Attempts have also been made at storing personal watercraft at the aft of the yacht. This may include, for example, tying or strapping a personal watercraft to the swim platform. The problem with the existing devices is that they are difficult to use, unsightly on the aft of the craft, are expensive to install, are not secure in strapping the watercraft to the yacht so that loss of watercraft may result and can be hazardous when people are transferring from the smaller watercraft to the retrieval system on the larger watercraft.
As can be appreciated, on ships and the like, marine hoists have been provided such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,761,571. This marine hoist is very complex, bulky and unacceptable for use on smaller craft. Furthermore, the marine hoist is pivoted about a point above the deck level of the ship which requires reinforcing guide wires or the like to prevent tipping of the hoist during launch and retrieval of a smaller craft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,606 describes a launch and retrieval system for smaller craft which may be mounted to the transom of a boat or to a dock. The system requires the removal of any swim platform from the rear of the boat and also requires bringing the personal watercraft very close to the aft of the boat which can result in collision with the boat aft during the retrieval process. This can result in potential damage of either craft in rough waters.
It is an object in accordance with an aspect of the invention to provide a launch and retrieval system which overcomes the problems associated with the above-noted prior art devices and provides a launch and retrieval system which meets other objectives including easy-to-manufacture and install, foolproof to operate and safe to use.